Chapter 119

Cara’s POV

For a moment, I stand there totally stunned and unsure what to do, how to continue, how to fully process what I’m seeing.

Alaric doesn’t appear to be holding the woman in return, but I know that doesn’t mean anything. He’s not pulling away either. At least, not fast enough to signal his repulsion in what the woman is doing.

I don’t care if he’s the instigator or just going along with it.

We aren’t a couple. He’s free to do whatever he wants with himself and his personal time.

Yet, this behavior, to me, shows that his desire to repair and rebuild things with me is just a ruse. Or maybe a passing fancy.

If he has time to be fooling around with other women, then he isn’t as dedicated to me as I had once thought.

I’m embarrassed to have ever considered that he might be genuine. I’m doubly embarrassed to have thought he might show protective instincts toward me or our children.

How could I tell him about the kids now? How could I trust him to care?

“This was a mistake,” I whisper.

Colin, stepping up beside me, sees what I see. He stills, clearly not having expected to see this sight either. It’s pretty early in the day. I would have thought Alaric would have been working. Instead, he’s in the hotel bar with a woman practically coiling herself around him.

My heart hurts worse than I want to admit. It’s easy for me to call it disappointment at Alaric’s behavior, as he’s now no longer proven himself trustworthy. I can’t even tell him about his own children and expect him to handle the news with any sort of grace. He’d probably dismiss me to stay with his mistress.

In truth, there is disappointment, but there is also so much more. Jealousy. Betrayal. Hurt after hurt that slice through me like a thousand blades to the heart.

I’m not ready to name those emotions yet, though. For now, it is enough to feel them.

I need to get out of here before I lose my composure and my emotions slip free. I have cried too many times over Alaric. I’ve sworn to myself no more, and I intend to see that through.

No more tears.

“I’m leaving,” I say to Colin.

Yet as I start to turn, Colin warns me. “He saw us.”

Alaric’s POV

Looking at this woman, I try to see past her clearly dyed red hair and her clothes made up to look like Cara. It takes a long moment, too long maybe, but then I see her.

“Melinda Bedford,” I say.

She leans back on her stool and huffs in frustration. “I knew I should have gotten you drunk first…”

Before I can process that, or really think through what her plans here were at all – why impersonate Cara? – I sense a familiar presence and scent a beloved scent on the air.

My stomach drops, realizing what this means.

Looking toward the door, I see the back of Cara as she turns away. I can’t see her face, but with how jerky her movements are now, I can assume that she has seen everything.

Colin, beside her, makes no attempt to hide his disgust. He’s not the most expressive of the brothers, yet he is glaring at me like I have just committed the gravest offense against his sister.

Maybe I have. But it was a misunderstanding.

I leave Melinda without more word or warning and hurry across the hotel lobby, eager to catch Cara before she leaves.

“Cara,” I say, as I draw closer.

She ignores me, starting toward the door.

“Cara,” I say with more urgency, and grab her arm.

“Careful,” Colin utters in warning, watching me closely.

“Let me go, Alaric,” Cara says. She keeps her face away from me, but she isn’t moving toward the door anymore. It’s a small victory, but an indication that she will perhaps hear me out.

“It’s not what it looks like, Cara. Please. Just hear me out.”

“I’m not sure what else it could be,” she says. “It’s very clear what was happening, even from this distance.”

“This is a misunderstanding,” I say, very aware of how closely Colin is observing the scene. He looks ready to intervene at a moment’s notice, but I’m hoping he will hold off. I just need a bit more time to properly explain the situation to Cara. Once I tell her about the note and Melinda, I’m sure everything will be clearer and –

“Who is this, darling?”

The new voice startles all three of us.

Suddenly Melinda is at my side, curling her arm around mine like a python around its victim.

“Oh,” Melinda says. “Isn’t that your old Beta?”

“Back off, Melinda,” I say, my voice low with warning. “Quit trying to interfere in something you have no right to.”

“No right?” she scoffs. Placing her hand to her heart, she fakes upset. “Is that anyway to talk to me? Your lover, and the mother of your unborn child.”

With her free hand, she affectionately rubs her stomach. If there is a pup in there, it’s not mine!

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demand. “We’ve never slept together. You aren’t my lover!”

Melinda, apparently, is a high quality actress, able to bring forth tears on command. They spring to her eyes now. Combined with a quivering bottom lip, she puts on quite the convincing performance.

“Who can you deny it? After everything I’ve given up for you?” Melinda asks, and even her voice is shaking.

I realize quickly there will be no convincing Melinda to drop this charade. She has her agenda, whatever that is, and frankly, her opinions and feelings aren’t what matter to me at all.

Cara is the woman I love. And right now, she is hurting because of Melinda’s words and my inaction.

I need to end this.

“Cara, this woman is lying,” I say firmly. “I only came down to the lobby because I received your note that –”

“I didn’t send any note,” Cara says. Her voice is shaky too, and unlike Melinda, I assume this to be genuine.

It cracks my heart in half. “Cara.”

“Let me go, Alaric,” she says, her voice filled with heartache.

I can’t. Not with this misunderstanding sitting between us.

“Cara, if you would just listen –”

“Let her go, Alaric,” Colin says, stepping closer. He bodily places himself between Cara and me. This close, I can see his glare full-force.

Colin is the quieter of the brothers. He’s the one who prefers to observe and think things through before acting first, like the twins.

For him to intervene here tells me all I need to know about how much I’m hurting Cara in this moment, and how very guilty I look.

I also know, Colin might be the quietest of the brothers, but he is no less willing to act when pressed, especially to protect his beloved sister.

To him, I am the villain here. If I don’t want this to become a brawl, I need to let Cara go.

Fighting Colin would not win me any favors in Cara’s eyes.

My hands are tied here. The only thing I can do is let Cara go and hope to explain later.

Seeing no other choice, I release my hold on Cara and she immediately starts to walk away, out the hotel front door.

Colin lingers a moment longer. In a disgusted tone, he tells me, “You are a fool, Alaric.”

Then, he turns and follows his sister out the door, leaving me alone with my regret and this vicious lying woman beside me.